As I believe I blogged about in the past, we had a stager come through our house last fall. She was super nice but yet super honest. She told us what needed to go, what could stay, what needed to be fixed and what actually looked good. It was kind of hard to hear that lots of our beloved "stuff" would have to go. Rooms needed to be cleaned out of personal effects and some of the furniture needed to be thinned out as well. A person doesn't realize they are attached to a wooden cabinet until you're told it needs to go. But I NEED it.... (Turns out, we didn't.)
So we got that furniture moved out and a few odd jobs done around the house while we were at it. Thanks to a coworker who is much more willing to go on a much higher ladder than me, we even got the entry painted. Whew! Once the rooms were cleaned of all personal pictures and excess furniture we had the photographers come on through. The pictures turned out amazing, so I guess it was all worthwhile. Then we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited to find the house of our dreams. We didn't plan to list our house until we had somewhere to go. The super exciting news is that we found our place! That's for another blog though as even though we have a purchase agreement, I'm afraid to jinx it as we need to sell our home first. Enter our realty team to finally get to put all those photos to work. We were thinking that we were waiting for the best time to list by waiting until spring. Our house hit the market and..... an epic snowstorm hit the region.
While the snow and sleet raged we showed our home the first day it was listed to 3 different prospective buyers. Preparing your house for a showing isn't just putting the dishes in the dishwasher and hiding your bra under a pillow. There is a little more involved. First I go into rampant cleaning mode and make sure every surface is wiped down, slept, steam cleaned, dusted, etc... Then I agonized over what scents to put in the scentsy and air fresheners. Several websites recommend baking cookies before the showing to fill the air with the scent of baking cookies. In lieu of this, I wanted to find a vanilla scent. No such luck. I could find vanilla for the scentsy, but not the air fresheners. Second choice, "clean linen". Does it get any better than a clean fresh scent? I sure hope not. I bought a little bouquet of white daisies for a jar on the table next to the folder of flyers and disclosures. Then Tim and I went back through the house and tried to remove every sign that people actually live there. Hide the dish rags, towels, laundry hampers, soap dispensers, make sure the garbages are emptied, coats hung in the closet, shoes neatly lined up on the racks, oh and don't forget the dog! The dog must go. Can't have our 4 lb chihuahua trying to convince any potential buyers that we don't want them here. The last thing on the to do list as you're leaving is to turn on all the lights. Do you have any idea how hard it is to walk out the door turning ON the lights? It seems so... wrong.
The showings were virtually back to back to back so we spent the day hanging out at Tim's folks; playing cards and watching movies, and maybe a few naps were had too. We waited to go home and we hoped for good news. Here's the cool thing. No more waiting and wondering what they think of it for days on end, Like everything else these days, there is an app for that. It tells you when someone has made an appointment to come see your home AND it gives you almost immediate feedback about what they thought of your house. It was kind of exciting and a little discouraging too. We know our house isn't perfect, but a person sure hopes everyone will like it as much as you do. I love my house, apparently not everyone who viewed it did. But there were some positives too and we've only just begun so keeping our thoughts positive and our hopes up. Nothing like a week of more winter storm watches and snow to keep folks from scheduling appointments, but spring will really come at some point, right?
For now we wait and hope for the power of the internet to work in our favor (for a change....) Here's hoping someone out there is looking for the perfect home for their family with room to run in that big back yard, quiet cul de sac neighborhood and maybe they are golfers. Not golfing much these days so the location across from the golf course doesn't help us, but maybe someone else will be excited? Thanks to our friends and family for sharing our listing and getting the word out. We appreciate it! Thank you!
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